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SACARAMENTO
- Kaiser Permanente has notified 1,331 patients that procedures
performed on them at a Sacramento-area hospital may have been done with
contaminated instruments.

Letters
asking patients to be tested for hepatitis A, B and C were sent
earlier this week to people who underwent certain procedures between
Jan.
19 and April 15. Some lung patients are being tested for tuberculosis
and
other infections.

"We
don't expect any positive test results, but we just felt compelled
to do this," Dr. Anvar Velgi, chief of infectious disease at the South
Sacramento facility, told The Sacramento Bee.

Velgi
called for the tests after technicians discovered that two machines
used to sterilize scopes - a device used to look into body cavities for
sources of bleeding, ulcers or cancers - were partially clogged. That
could
have prevented disinfectant from fully decontaminating them, Velgi
said.

The
hospital wants to test anyone who had a scope procedure during the
window of time, including an endoscopy, colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy.

The
tools are cleaned manually before they are put in sterilization
machines, Velgi said.

Velgi
said the machines are being examined every 30 days and that all
physicians and nurses who use them are being retrained. Similar
machines
used at other Kaiser hospitals also will be thoroughly checked.